The fragile forest ecosystems in Latin America have long served domestic economic interests through timber production mining land resettlement and cattle ranching. Over the past two decades the demands on this natural resource base have been exacerbated by transnational commercial and political forces. These forces include MERCOSUR the worlds second largest customs union composed of Argentina Bolivia Brazil Chile Paraguay and Uruguay the Kyoto Protocol and international environmental organizations. As threats to the regions endangered ecosystems have grown so have new approaches to stem the damage by incorporating local populations in decentralized systems of resource management. This volume examines several of the innovative strategies being tested in the Amazon rainforest. These attempts involving multiinstitutional responses to environmental threats are showing initial results that offer cautious hope for the future. Contributors include Martin Coy Geographical Institute University of Innsbruck Austria Herve Thery Ecole Normal Superieur Paris and Centre for Sustainable Development University of Brasilia David Cleary Nature Conservancy Brazil Phil Fearnside National Institute for Amazonian Studies Brazil Neli Aparecida de Mello Centre for Sustainable Development University of Brasilia John Redwood Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development for Latin America and the Caribbean World Bank Martina Neuburger University of Tuebingen Germany Dan Pasca University of Tuebingen Judith Lisansky World Bank Sergio Rosendo Centre for Social and Economic Research on the Global Environment University of East Anglia UK Fabio de Castro Anthropological Center for Training and Research on Global Environmental Change Indiana University and Nucleo de Estudos e Pesquisa Ambiental University of Campinas Brazil and Larissa Chermont London School of Economics and Political Science and Federal University of Para Belem Brazil.